Video conferencing allows people at two or more locations to interact simultaneously via video and audio transmissions. In the past, video conferencing was largely limited to enterprise use. However, the growth of the internet and wireless communication networks, coupled with declining bandwidth cost, has made video conferencing more accessible than ever before. A number of services exist that provide low bandwidth video conferencing to consumers using the internet or wireless communication networks. In addition, the rapid growth of mobile communication devices that include cameras, such as smart phones and tablet computers, enable consumers to video conference at virtually any time from anywhere in the world.
Typically, video conferencing is a bandwidth intensive process that requires transmission and reception of large amounts of video and audio information. Low bandwidth video conferencing mitigates bandwidth requirements in part by applying high compression to the video transmission. However, heavily compressing the video reduces the overall quality of the observed video. The reduction in quality is often readily apparent with respect to human faces. People can be rendered unrecognizable due to the high compression rates employed in low bandwidth video conferencing.
High bandwidth or high definition video conferencing can provide high quality observed video. However, these techniques can require special communication infrastructures that are not readily available or affordable. In addition, common techniques for facial detection and/or enhancement can be computationally expensive, and may not be well suited for video conferencing.